nevada and wisconsin. first, back to sole dad. >>> at the end of the day, it's all going to be about the math. in order to win, you have to hit the magic number of 270 electoral votes. let's get to christine romans who is crunching the numbers. >> the rose to 270. what if it were a draw at 269? it's possible. there are four 269 scenarios. statistically, there are 120 different scenarios. four with the swing states. this is hypothetical, remember. the map is assuming that states that are actually leaning go in the direction that they're leaning right now. wisconsin, ohio, and new hampshire, new hampshire with the four electoral votes, if they go for obama and romney wins nevada, colorado, iowa, virginia, and the 29 over there in florida, then you're at a tie. worst nightmare for both parties. 269 each. now a note for iowa here, this is assuming it goes red, it goes for romney with the six electoral votes. recent polls there showing a slight lead, actually, for obama. if wisconsin and ohio vote democrat, you know, technically you could think -- you could conclude that iowa could go in

, nevada. ed lavandera is in denver, colorado, for us this morning. john zarrella comes to us live from plantation, florida. we want to begin with complete comprehensive coverage with john berman checking in to see how our correspondents are faring. >> thanks, soledad. the candidates are all over the place today. president obama and mitt romney hold atriallies in seven states today. a final frenetic day of campaigning across the battleground. for the president, he begins in wisconsin, a state that has voted true blue since 1984 but it is almost always close. and with paul ryan a native wisconsin son on the republican ticket, the obama team is taking no chances. they've called in the cavalry to help, including the boss, bruce springsteen to seal the deal. dan lothian is live in madison, wisconsin. good morning, dan. >> good morning, and you're right, bruce springsteen will be warming up the crowd here with a 30-minute concert before the president comes out. the campaign has been using these big names not only to draw in big audiences, but also to energize them. i can tell you, after

decided. you listed all the important states, florida, colorado, nevada. but here in ohio, this is the biggest, the most important of the battleground states. the president was here yesterday, made three stops making two stops here. we'll return here again. and the message that the president keeps hammering away on here is how he pushed for the auto bailout. why is that so important? because so many jobs in ohio are tied to the auto industry. they believe this is a message that resonates with voters here. so we expect for the president to continue pushing that theme as he makes his remarks here in ohio again this morning. we're told there is an overthrow crowd and the president is making some remarks to them. they will be coming out here to speak later on. >> all right. dan, thanks so much. of course, we'll take that event as soon as the president does finish up with the overflow crowd and then making his way into that arena in mentor, ohio. >>> the president's opponent mitt romney is having a very busy final weekend of his own campaigning before the election. he is in new hampshire, i

vote in several of them, including ohio, iowa, nevada, we've got a lead in colorado. we feel very good about where we are. >> david axelrod joining us this morning. thanks for being with us. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> you want to be sure to watch the rest of our cnn election team tonight when the first polls close at 6:00 p.m. eastern. you can follow the exact countdown in the lower left-hand side of your screen and as the clock ticks for those closing. there are other stories making news this morning. zoraida's got that for you. >> good morning. another key race to watch today former presidential candidate michele bachmann in the toughest battle of her political life. minnesota congresswoman is in a tight race with democratic challenger jim graves. in their final debate, bachmann defended her claims that muslim brotherhood operatives have infiltrated the federal government. >>> and a sign today that the northeast is slowly recovering from superstorm sandy. the national september 11th memorial at the world trade center site in new york city reopened today. it was cl

over the gulf oil spill that could cost the oil giant billions. that's straight ahead. >>> nevada congressman joe heck will join us, nascar driver kurt busch, dr. sanjay gupta is with us, dutch ruppersberger and "twilight" actress, elizabeth reaser. "starting point" begins right now. morning. welcome, everybody. our team this morning, charles blow on the other side of me is with us, "new york times" columnist. stephen baldwin next to me, actor, of course. international editor for "time." and "early start" co-anchor, john berman. worry talking about president obama, who seems prepared to fight on a couple of critical fronts right now, during his very first news conference since he won re-election. drawing what seemed to be a pretty red line for republicans, first one on taxes and the fiscal cliff. >> when i'm not going to do is to extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that we could afford and, according to economists, will have the loeea positive impact on our economy. >> he also wanted republicans to be aware he is supporting u.s. ambassador to the u.n., susan rice. she, init

herman, a new york criminal defense attorney and law professor joins us from las vegas, nevada. gentlemen, thank you very much. this is not the most serious story we have but it did go to court. that is why it is a legal story. >> well, if you're a possum, it is. >> and also if you're peta, first of all the owner has hosted the possum, in a town about hundred miles west of asheville in north carolina. and it involves trapping the possum in a cage and lowering it. now the judges seemed to not -- using a wild possum, the judge ordered them to release or kill the animal. that is the weird irony. so peta sued for the trement of animals. it sounds funny, but there is a legal issue involved. >> i actually feel bad for the possum, i think the north carolina department of wildlife made up a permit so they could issue this to mr. logan. and i think the administrative law judge who wrote an 18-page opinion, among other things, patrick henry. was right. there is no right to capture or hold a wild animal. so at the end of the day no possum drop there unless the estate legislature changes t

nothing. president obama held on in nevada. why? for years no primary challenge. remember, they spent money, they identified, they turned out all the latino voters. colorado, suburban voters, latino voters. the president held onto that one. you were impressed by it, they outhustled governor romney. they held onto iowa, a state governor romney was so confident they were going to get. the republican governor put registration at parody. the republicans thought they could get it. they got outhustled again. wisconsin, the paul ryan pick was not enough. state blue dna. >> scott walker won would have a shot. >> one lesson we learn second-degree that mid-term elections are not presidential elections. obama people said african-american turnout will come back and it did. latino would come back, and it did. this is what you end up with. all of the states i turned blue were states at one point or another the romney campaign felt comfortable and a few felt very comfortable about. president obama outhustled them and ran the board. the luxury of no primary, all that spending on turnout. but look, th

tomorrow morning. >> the western states will play key as well, nevada, colorado. we weren't talking about those states in 2000, 2004, there will be a difference as well. >> david frum wrote no voting system is perfect. but here's what doesn't happen in other democracies, politicians of one party do not set voting schedules to favor their side and harm the other. politicians do not move around voting places to gain advantages of themselves or to disadvantage -- in fact, in almost no other country do politicians have any say in the administration of the elections at all. >> i agree. >> i worry about who has control of that process. >> in no other country do we spend so much time. this has been a year and a half almost. it feels like a year and a half since the primaries. >> it feels like five. >> in no other country is there -- really in few other countries is there early voting, absentee balloting. all the opportunities there are to vote in this country. >> we still don't have such a high percent of participation. maybe we should rethink how we do it. >> we need the forms of voting t

passage of the dream act in maryland, the voter turned up in states like new mexico and nevada, hispanic voters are the strongest voting blocks for democrats this year and their message was simple. the elects are over and they say they want results. cry chanting yes, we can, in both english and spanish, groups of hispanic voters and those who would like to be voters, came to the white house. >> we have a mandate right now and the president is going to deliver. >> reporter: gustavo torrez of casa in action said this part demonstration and part celebration of latino voting power delivers a single message on a single issue. >> the comprehensive reform, we believe that democrats want it and republicans need it. and this is a time to pass immigration reform. >> under the watchful eye of the secret service, over 100 hispanic demonstrators gathered in front of the white house. >> the country is waiting for immigrants reform laws! >> reporter: among this group, you will find veronica, an undocumented student from el salvador who has lived in maryland for seven years and wants to be a psychologis

i represent a region that is 50 million people. california, arizona, nevada, hawaii, it's a three territories and three countries in the pacific. and i could tell you that i have moved around my region. i've been working with the hiv/aids and other communities throughout our region. do you know how many people have said to me, i got my information through san francisco? (applause) >> that is something to be really proud of. you know, i'll tell you a little bit of a personal story as we -- i move on. imagine september 16th, 1991, your young 29 year old, gay man living in washington, d.c., fulfilling your dream to be a lobbyist. and your physician calls. hi, sam. hi, herb. imagine i had hair, i had very curly hair. [laughter] >> and bill wilson has pictures of it and i know he's here. and he said, herb, i think you ought to come to my office. and i said, why? and he said, because, you know, you had some tests recently. i know, i had the flu, i came in, i did some tests. what's up? you need to come to my office. and these are the pills. and a week-and-a-half ago sunday, september 16t

, iowa, wisconsin, colorado, and nevada. brian, that is a wide margin where the candidates will battle the next few days. >>> tonight, video of mitt romney discussing his mormon faith and abortion has gone viral. he ran for president in '08 and sat down in iowa and discussed his faith and view on abortion. >> my faith has strong beliefs -- i was beaten up in boston because i encouraged girls not to have abortions but adoption. i have not done anything to viola the principles of my church in that regard. >> romney said while the mormon church doesn't condone abortion, the church doesn't say a punish has to be opposed to allowing choice in society n. '08, he said there were plenty of democrats who were mormons and pro-choice. >>> the advocacy group nuns on the bus is back on the road today. the members gathered this morning at a church near arlington. 200 supports turned out. they planned to make stops in several cities in virginia, including richmond and virginia beach. the group has been critical in the past. the republican plans would cut federal aid and roll back advances in healthca

republican seats in maryland, colorado, and nevada. so, the left and the right of the party and all of its wings made -- made mistakes in choosing candidates. romney was not a great candidate. he came out of the open primary process. it was the only one in the field to was remotely presidential and that is why he got the nomination. >> president obama to 71% of the hispanic vote. if you were taking a look at the republican party, would you not start with them, mark? >> i would. i would also start with the asian vote. republican party is increasingly an older, whiter, male party. the republican base is moving -- a larger percentage of voters under 29 turned out than those over 60. republican base is moving from its own home to the rest come to the funeral home. and the democratic base is moving from their room, maybe eventually to a home of their own. if they get a job of their own. that is the difference between the two parties. >> there was a statistic that was just incredible. if you look at the white vote from 10 years ago, it was 81%. now it is down to 72%. we are headed to a ve

so why. i think that it has you know because there are brothels that are legal in nevada and i think they should be legal everywhere because things like this need to stop happening you know he was in the army when this happened or before this happened and then after it happened he was out of the army and he didn't do anything illegal so obviously we need to relax and the cia and the f.b.i. need to come to the bunny ranch and get along probably the cia and the f.b.i. and try to show who's the biggest man welcome to the bunny ranch and prove it that's what you need to prove it but that's the bunny ranch is where everybody gets along i guess what they all we all get along it's just have a good time. if people of america this got to wake up people or have an extramarital affair and the women are doing it too we do a lot of women customers a list celebrity at the bunny ranch yesterday a woman and i'm sure her husband didn't know she was there i want to ask you because you obviously have seen your range of clients and. you know we have the republicans and the democrats and a very par

democratic majority to break the rules to change the rules. that's how my friend from nevada repeatedly described it when republicans considered doing something similar several years ago but wisely chose not to. at the end of the following year my friend has -- was poised to become senate majority leader. this was back in 2006. with the experience of having served in the minority in his mind, the majority leader, the soon-to-be majority leader, the senator from nevada, made a commitment to practice the golden rule, as he put it, by running the senate with respect for the rules and for the minority rights the rules protect. unfortunately, he appears to have repudiated that clear commitment. unfortunately, he no longer recognizes, as senator byrd did, by the way, that the senate was not established to be efficient but to make sure minorities are protected. then my friend recognized that is what the senate is all about. that's what he said back then. now he says the primary consideration is -- quote -- "efficiency." he seeks to minimize concerns about this majoritarian power gra

dealing with. some snow not mountains of -- in the mountains of california and nevada nevada and northern rocky -- nevada and northern rockies. but in the east the clear skies here in the ohio and tennessee valley. that's going to be moving toward us for the weekend. although a little warm front tonight into tomorrow may produce a few clouds. here we're at 6:00 and all quiet. watch overnight and clouds here and even the isolated shower in southwestern pennsylvania. will produce some clouds across our northern suburb especially through the morning hours tomorrow. so the heart walk i think it's going to be a nice start in the 40s tomorrow morning. but if there are a few clouds don't get too upset. by afternoon a lot of sunshine. tomorrow in the mid 60s. and even warmer on sunday, as we get into more of a southerly southwesterly flow. sunday looks like high temperatures will be approaching the 70-degree mark if not the low 70s. so this afternoon, mid 50s hagerstown. 57 annapolis. but 60 for fredericksburg and again here in washington. looking at our forecast for the next three days,

a nevada company struck an agreement with union pacific railroad last week. they hope to get the train running by late 2013. x, called x for a reason, like, x-rated maybe? don't flash anybody out the train. you might get a ticket. quarter past the hour or almost. stocks now and every 15 minutes. it's a big day for retail, robert. how's the stocks reacting? >> big day, and i'm feeling big here. the gulliver's report. it's kids day here. kids joining me, employees bringing kids out for the day, shortened trading day, but retail stocks in focus, moving higher. the broader market here, and you got stocks like wal-mart and best buy moving higher which is near lows as of late. sears a big winner, macy's up 1%. dagen, looking at gains k almost across the board amongst the major retailers out here, and no doubt, some of the kids will force the parents to take them shopping here as well, and, hey, everybody, tell fox business, send wishes out? >> happy thanksgiving! [cheers and applause] dagen: that just made me smile. that's hard to do. >> it is. dagen: terrific sight. report, thank you

. he would go backward on wall street reform. obama landed in nevada now. he has three stops in wisconsin. six in ohio. they thought they'd have the state locked up but they don't. six stops in ohio tells us while he has a lead, they are nervous about that. he will hit it six times. he is rolling out big celebrities. eva longoria in nevada. sheila e. she was banging on the drums. we're told on monday he will be in battleground states with jay-z and bruce springstein. you talked about david axelrod saying that are not going to lose michigan and not losing minnesota, not losing pennsylvania. if they do, he will shave off his mustache. new information on the shaving front. today, jay carney showed up to work on air force one without shaving says he is not going to shave between now and election day. superstition. he thinks it will help the president win re-election. we know jay carney will shave after election day. will david axelrod shave after election day? it may help us learn whether or not mr. romney will win or the president >> dana: thank you. good thing when i was press sec

be a close contest. barack obama was leading before the election and then prevailed 52-46%. nevada also expected to be in the president's column, and indeed it turned out to be. let's go to new hampshire. this is a bit of a home state for mitt romney because he has a vacation home there. he spent a lot of time vacationing during the primaries. he won the primary, but not the general election in new hampshire. to north carolina a close race and we called it for mitt romney, a three-point win. the state of ohio, this was really the make or break for the mitt romney campaign. in the end he lost it by two percentage points. a lot of it had to do with his position on the auto bailout. virginia an important state for mitt romney to win. he had to run the table of florida, north carolina, virginia and ohio and he lost virginia. let's move to wisconsin. his running mate paul ryan born and raised in wisconsin. it didn't help him there. barack obama wins with wise -- wins wisconsin. the state of michigan mitt romney was born in michigan and raised there. his father was the governor for two t

wisconsin as we speak. he'll visit nevada and colorado today. the president took a three-daybreak from campaigning to oversee the government's response to hurricane sandy. part of the presentation will focus on the effort to provide relief of those affected by the massive storm. >> the death toll is climbing four days after sandy made land fall. the storm claimed 75 lives. more than 4.5 million homes and businesses were without power along the east coast. most in the new york area and that area around new york city. president obama saw the damage on the jersey shore. during the tour, the president pledged support along the long haul. >> sandy brought flooding and now it's causing gridlock. this is the long back up of cars trying to get into the city this morning. drivers had to go through a police check point and prove they had three people in the car. it was encouraged to encourage car pooling. >>> closer to home, martin o'malley got a firsthand look at the impact of sandy on the eastern shore. he stopped in a bayside home yesterday. they toured flooded roads and houses. they looked a

voted. nevada. 72%. north carolina, 63% has already voted. in florida 53%. iowa 44%. and ohio 31%. john dickerson and i were talking about this earlier today. we could have most of the results already by the people that have come out early and that's why the campaigns spent so much time on getting out the vote early, this ground game on these early votes. >> pelley: we'll come back to you early and often. john dickerson is our cbs news political director. john is going to be showing us the various ways that the candidates can get to the 270 electoral votes necessary to twin presidency. john? >> well, first, scott, let's follow up on what bob was saying. we're going to dispatch with 41 of the states, the majority of the country cbs estimates based on the polling that those states are either going to go to barack obama or to mitt romney. that gives barack obama a start where he's likely to get 237 electoral votes, mitt romney is likely to get 191 electoral votes. so here we are at the beginning of the evening, nothing has been called, it's all possibility. so what is the easiest pa

family. >> the president won with slim majorities in key states. virginia and nevada were not called until early this morning. still outstanding is florida where people were still in line of voting at 2:00 a.m. they have to count all those ballots, not to mention the provisional ballots in ohio. tracie potts, wbal-tv 11 news. >> maryland chose ben cardin as a u.s. senator. >> you can see all the results scrolling on the bottom of your screen and on our website, wbaltv.com. we continue our team coverage with jennifer franciotti. >> she has a breakdown of the three main questions. >> marylanders had seven questions and you could call it a sweep. questions four, six, and seven. the dream act allows undocumented immigrants to pay in state college tuition rates and that they or their parents paid taxes. the dream act passed with 59%. 31% were against. >> we are very happy. we are a little emotional. the hard work has been worthwhile. >> marylanders passed question sixth legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of maryland. same-sex couples can apply for a civil marriage license. k

much of their work registering voters took place in colorado nevada virginia and florida all expected to be very close contest much of this has been unfolding over the last month or so but we want to talk about some of the latest aspects of this case with corbin carson a journalist with news twenty one and corbin i took a look at your web site voting rights news twenty one dot com and right on the first page you say the exhaustive search finds very little voter fraud how exhaustive was your search and what exactly did you find. well as part of news twenty one investigation into voting rights this year we wanted to add hard data to the highly partisan debate about voter fraud whether it is affecting elections and if the new voter id laws could be stopped by the fraud we found so over the course of our eight month investigation we sent out thousands of public records requests to secretaries of state all the attorney generals and in some cases we had to go county by county and as you know there's over three thousand counties in the united states and what we found was over the course of t

already been filed in florida which i was referring to before about early voting suppression in nevada democrats are being accused of registering illegal immigrants and meanwhile authorities in texas in iowa are threatening international election monitors from the organization for security and cooperation in europe with arrest if they approached. voting locations so clearly this election day a day where americans will be choosing not only just as city state official but choosing between barack obama and mitt romney this election day is proving to be very problematic causing lots of contre very controversy in various states but this is not the first time the u.s. election has garnered criticism from the electorate artie's honest explains. you elected me to tell you the truth honesty is the best policy while maybe not in u.s. elections two words define why people hate america double standard on everything this presidential election season these two words are back in full swing the basic definition of a double standard is a rule or principle unfairly applied in different ways to different

victims will get the help they need. >>> mr. obama will hold rallies in wisconsin nevada and colorado today. mitt romney will be campaigning in the battleground state of virginia. >>> breaking news in the penn state sexual abuse case. former penn state president gram graham spanier is expected to be charged today. the paper reports in a grand jury filing last year, he denied being aware of a 1998 university police investigation of jerry sandusky and claimed sandusky was with children in the football locker room showers. >>> fire officials say the large warehouse fire they battled all night long is now out. >> at one point, crews had to be evacuated from the building because of the dangerous conditions. fox 5's melanie alnwick is live at the scene with the latest. >> reporter: they do have it out but we can still see some steam coming off the rooftop this morning. this goes though show you how hot and howen tense the fire was when it got going last night. firefighters say they got the call around 10:30 yesterday evening. -- this goes to show you how hot and how intense the fire was whe

. they're more confident about a few other states. they look at iowa, they look at wisconsin nevada and new hampshire and they think those states are in their column. they're incredibly confident as of this moment that they look at ohio and that's the next highest level of confidence they have what mark said is right. they feel the bain ads did damage to romney. we're going to look back one day on the fact that governor romney wrote his op-ed in the "new york times" that said "let detroit go bankrupt." he wrote that op-ed in november of 2008 right at the end of -- right after the presidential campaign in 2008, long before he was an announced candidate and it could been the most important thing to his detriment that he did. he did it almost four years ago but it's been very hard for him to overcome that. it's also the case that ohio is different in the sense that the white working class voters in ohio are more unionized than any other state in the country and what we're seeing across the midwest is that white working class voters in the northwest the rust belt are just different in terms

, more stimulus into the economy in hard-hit states like nevada, florida, ohio, colorado, pennsylvania, california than any institution. they may be more important than the fed. we have to look at money and politics. >> this is interesting. the comments from all four speakers. i want to ask about a demographic group that none of you touched on. one out of every five americans has a disability. 51% of likely voters said they have a family member with a disability. at the national press club when there was an opportunity for the romney campaign and the obama campaign to send someone to speak about disability issues, the romney campaign chose not to attend and chose not to issue a position paper on disabilities. i wanted to ask why, given that one out of five americans has a disability, 51% of american likely voters has a family member or a loved one, why is there not more conversation about that demographic within our society and election process? >> the short answer is in an election that revolving around the role of government, if your for small government, why would you want to get in

in nevada, another key state that we're watching here. there was just a kwocouple of d ago that the romney campaign ran this ad attempting to link the president to hugo chavez and fidel castro that is probably not a way to get latino voters to i guess appreciate your economic plan since he says he's got this five-point plan. >> well, one of the things that is interesting here, that is an ad that actually might work in florida. the hispanic community in florida is made up of cubans and venezuelans. if you look at the polls that. >> do care about this administration's policy in terms of some of these countries and in terms of south american countries. so that's a ploy i think will work in florida. not so much in nevada where there are more mexicans. you're right. this idea of focusing on foreign policy rather than on economic policy, not a good play. you saw mitt romney try to do that early on. he was in texas, for instance, early on in this race, and talking about those issues. but, again, in texas, that's a state he is going to win. have i been quite surprised that you haven't seen